With so many of my BIG KIDS struggling with fluency, I worked to make it a part of my daily work with students, a Tier 1 intervention that the majority of the class could benefit from. Reading fluency incorporates three main components: speed, accuracy, and prosody, which directly impact comprehension. While I have shared a great deal about incorporating 6-Minute Solutions, here are a few other ways I worked to make fluency fun for my 6th graders.

Oh summary. How I have such a love-hate relationship with you. Summarizing stories is something students start at a young age, and yet it is still so hard for students even in late elementary. I often find that they struggle to determine the important details from the minor details and write summaries filled with and then, and then, and then, and then, and then.....I end up feeling like Ashton Kutcher from "Dude, Where's My Car." So, why do we teach summarizing? The ability to summarize builds comprehension. Summarizing a narrative text helps students comprehend the plot of the story. According to Fountas and Pinnell, good readers are always taking information from the text and condensing it into a summary-type form. As readers pull out the most important information, they are constantly interpreting what the author is telling them and further developing the summary of the story. This year, I wanted to begin by seeing what the kids remembered about summary and clear up misconceptions before beginning the summarizing process. I made a simple chart with "What is a summary?" and "What is a summary NOT?" I wanted them to think about summaries from both sides. I gave them each a green sticky note first and asked them to tell me, in their own words, what they thought a summary was. They each came and added their sticky note to the chart. Then I gave them each a yellow sticky note and asked them to write down, in their own words, what they know is NOT included in a summary. Then they added their yellow sticky notes to our chart. We read a few of them aloud and saw that many of them had several of the same ideas. Here are a couple examples of what my students said a summary is. A summary is a few short lines of sentences that tell the most important parts of a story in order. A paragraph said in your own words but not very many details. And here are a couple examples of what my students said a summary is NOT. Your thoughts about the story. A summary is not very detailed, not long, and not a copy of the story. I like to use the Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then (SWBST) strategy with students because it gives them a way to ensure they are looking for each piece of the summary every time they read a narrative piece. When teaching, I suggest lots of modeling, then move to group work before letting them summarize on their own. Here is our anchor chart: I discussed with them that when summarizing a narrative text, they should look for the main character, what the main character wants or his/her goals, the main problem he/she encounters, and the resolution of the problem. We summarized a short, one page text that we had previously read, about a girl names Callie who needed to complete a difficult homework assignment. (According to Fountas and Pinnell, you should begin with short texts that do not have many details). I modeled how to use the summary chart, and we looked for each piece as a whole group. I put a sticky note at each table group and tasked them with writing down the information for one component of the chart. One table wrote down the main character, one table wrote down what the character wanted, and so on. I have left this chart hanging in our room now so the students will have a visual reminder of how to get a summary! I also use a SWBST foldable with my kids. Anytime they read a story, they can fill in one of these. Doing this each time they read a book, (either a book from the library, a book you are reading aloud in class, during guided reading, a weekly story, etc) will solidify and fine tune their summarizing skills. It also reminds them that each time they read a story, this is the information they need to be looking for to fully comprehend the text. I also have a SWBST log that students complete each time they read a fiction book. This helps hold students accountable for reading and finishing a book, helps with comprehension, and simultaneously works on reinforcing summarizing skills. Many teachers do reading logs anyway where the students write down what they are reading, but this is a way to prove they have read the story, and shows if they understood what they read. Never miss a teachable moment!! You can get this foldable and SWBST log as a FREEBIE in my store by clicking here, or by clicking the picture below! Enjoy!

These "Splat the Cat" activities will teach students about feelings with week-long lesson plans and book activities. These lesson plans will guide you through 3-5 daily interactive reading lessons for a full week of engaging activities your students will love! Each day students will interact with the book for a different purpose and then complete a corresponding printable or digital activity to reflect on the story more deeply. To teach these lessons you will need: Splat the Cat by By Rob Scotton This lesson plan resource includes: Splat the Cat book read aloud lesson plans Comprehension discussion questions and answer keys Splat the Cat vocabulary activities Differentiated graphic organizers and worksheets Writing prompt and writing paper Splat the Cat craft with instructions Digital graphic organizers and activities pre-loaded to Google Slides and Seesaw ***The digital graphic organizers are the same or similar to the printable options. ***Seesaw has many interactive tools to choose from. Text boxes are not pre-loaded on the graphic organizers because students may want to type or draw, which they can easily do with the provided tools in the program. Download our Scope and Sequence to see we how have aligned each of our K-1 Interactive Read-alouds with the CCSS standards. If you like this product, then you will LOVE all of our other interactive read-alouds. To see more of our Read-alouds for Kindergarten, click here. To see more of our Read-alouds for First Grade, click here. You can also purchase A Year of Interactive Read-Aloud Activities for K and 1st , at a discount! Do you love reading aloud to your primary students? We do too! It is one of our favorite times of the day. Here's what our buyers say: "Goes with my first week unit!" "I wish I could give this 5 stars! It is that good!" Visit our blog here to find out more about how to teach the Core one read-aloud at a time and to read more about our daily close reading lesson plans. We would love to hear from you! Please remember to earn your free TpT credit by leaving feedback when you purchase! ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ Follow us to get updates on our newest products! @thecorecoaches on Instagram The Core Coaches on Facebook The Core Coaches on Pinterest For helpful tips, hints, and classroom strategies check out our website! The Core Coaches Website

Start building a strong foundation for math and reading by introducing sequencing skills to your preschoolers. These free printable sequencing cards will get you started.

If you think I have the answers here, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I'm far from having any answers.

It is the first week of kindergarten! What do I teach? I get this question all the time! I am so excited to put together this page together for you. I’m sharing our favorite first week of kindergarten read aloud stories and the free coordinating printables I made to go with them. Plus I will s

If you are looking to add some high interest activities to your lessons, try using animated shorts to teach the reading skill cause and effect.

Have you ever thought about using wordless videos in your speech therapy lessons? It increases engagement! Start with these videos...

In these back-to-school read-alouds, you'll find powerful lesson plans. Find titles that are fun, yet strategically chosen to discussions.

Pete the Cat rocks a new school year in his school shoes. Make a Pete inspired class book of how you are rocking your school shoes.

Kostenlose Arbeitsblätter und Übungen zum Abschreiben von Texten für den Deutsch-Unterricht an der Grundschule zum Herunterladen und Ausdrucken als PDF.

Directed Drawing Reading Celebration Week {FREEBIE} Dr Seuss Week first grade and kindergarten ideas with video and freebie

Mit diesem Material soll das sinnentnehmende Lesen geübt werden. Auf jedem Arbeitsblatt muss eine Katze gefunden werden, die sich auf dem unteren Teil des

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Synopsis Expand/Collapse Synopsis Originally written for drama teachers working with students aged 9 to 18, this collection of short, snappy theater dialogues makes the perfect short break activity in any classroom, camp, or youth group situation. Students get much more out of these dialogues than just acting practice: they increase alertness, cultivate curiosity, boost literacy, and improve school attendance. The one-to-one dialogue format facilitates friendships and allows shy students to demonstrate new skills. Written by a family of drama experts, each dialogue centers around a theme related to young life: food, parents, hobbies, movies, even falling in love, to name just a few. Each dialogue is introduced with brief notes suggesting different ways of playing them at different ages and tips for adapting the dialogues to different age groups and situations. 101 Dialogues, Sketches, and Skits is part of the SmartFun Activity series from Hunter House, which includes over 25 titles that have sold more than 200,000 copies to date.

Engaging, fun ways to teach your students summarizing skills. Strengthen their reading skills and provide practice with this challenging concept.

Spring is almost here and I can't wait! I enjoyed making our new Spring Math and Literacy Packet for Kindergarten! This packet is filled with FUN,

Book Inspired Kids Crafts Roundup - I Heart Crafty Things A big hello today to all of you lovely Glued to My Crafts fans! My name is Rachel and I blog

 What a CRAZY week and weekend!!! We are finished with our state testing and school fair. Yahoo!!! This past week consisted of finishing up state testing, teaching students a dance for the fair performance, painting a picture for the fair silent auction, (see picture below), making over 50 candy apples for the sweets booth, and practicing for the teacher fair performance! Yes, I am one of 11 teachers who actually dances in front of the parents and students at the fair!!! I think the best part of dancing would be attending all practices after school!!!  enjoying the fair candy apples for the sweet booth silent auction: each student painted a different picture on the canvas End-of-the-Year Linky Party With state testing & the fair behind me, I can start preparing for the end of the year. I am linking up with Clutter-Free Classroom and sharing my end-of-the-year ideas. I can't believe May is right around the corner!! Where did the school year go? I still need to put together portfolios and make a power point presentation. I love making a power point from all of the pictures I take during the school year. I must admit that it takes over a week to construct because I always find a way to mess up something! It never fails that every year I make some kind of mistake!!! For the portfolios, I save the students' work all year and use sheet protectors in binders. I like to put the work in order from the first to last day for the parents. I put all work in sheet protectors. The parents appreciate the organization of the work so much because it saves them the time of doing it over the summer. Also, students complete a summer writing activity. This writing activity is my favorite one of the year. The creativity that flows from the students' brains is amazing! Students are asked to write about a summer trip they have taken already or plan on taking. After editing the rough draft, students write the final copy of the essay on sunglasses. Students glue glasses on large white construction paper and draw a picture around the glasses. I was amazed the first time I did this with my class. I did not instruct them to draw a person. The end results were more than I imagined! summer writing summer writing end-of-the-year presentation set up Click (HERE) to grab your sunglasses template. What a post! Please check out Clutter-Free Classroom Project and join the End-of-the-Year Linky Party! With much appreciation,

Hi y'all! This is Stephanie from The Learning Chambers and I'm here today to talk to you guys about small group instruction. Let me start off by saying that I love love LOVE small group instruction! I try to teach in small groups as much as possible. I'm a strong believer in individualized instruction and I believe that small group instruction is the way to achieve that. Today I wanted to share with you guys about how I keep track of and monitor my small groups. It's no secret that I love sticky notes! During small groups, I take short notes on my observations to help guide my instruction when we meet again. I normally write short notes and use student initials to help save time. I stick the notes on my small group binder and then later I move them to the individual student pages. That saves me time because I don't have to keep flipping back and forth to each individual student page. Here is an example that I made to show you guys. My school has four nine-week semesters, so I print four copies for each student for the year. I circle the nine-week semester that we are currently in and use it until the end of the nine weeks. When the next nine weeks starts, I start on a new documentation form. I keep these document pages in my small group binder and they are perfect for documenting RTI. You could also staple the pages together and make a small group flipbook. I love using these because they are quick and easy and provide me with the information that I need to help support my students. Want to use these in your classroom to document your small group observations? I'm super excited to share this freebie with you guys! You can even type in your own students' names to save even more time! There are forms that include the nine weeks line and some blank ones as well. You can grab these small group student documentation forms HERE.

Free set of printables to go along with Magnetic Tiles. Includes two levels of difficulty. Builds problem solving skills.

Inside you'll find Easy Artist Trading Cards Ideas for Kids. Stop by and download lots of fun templates for free.

What is the first week of school without Pete The Cat ? I know right?! We started using this fabulous character by James Dean and ...

It is the first week of kindergarten! What do I teach? I get this question all the time! I am so excited to put together this page together for you. I’m sharing our favorite first week of kindergarten read aloud stories and the free coordinating printables I made to go with them. Plus I will s

Primitive Reflexes: The answer behind W-sitting and how to help your child fix this position for better learning in the classroom.

I am so thrilled that we've made the leap to literature-based unit studies in our homeschool. They are such a wonderful, gentle way to learn! Papa Piccolo Activities This post contains affiliate links that help support Mama's Learning Corner. Visit Mama's Disclosure Policy for more information. This past week, my children and I enjoyed Papa Piccolo. Every week I say, 'This one is my favorite!' and this week was no exception. Some books lend themselves to so many learning opportunities that it's hard to choose which activities we want to do, and Papa Piccolo certainly falls in that category!

Tips for getting students' attention and quieting a chatty class. Behavior management

Clothespins are used mainly for hanging laundry out to dry but nowadays there are many more uses for them. Clothespins can be used to create adorable crafts, decor and can be useful in other ways. Today I will be sharing some Clothespin Crafts for Adults and Kids that will inspire you with a fun craft

Exquisite corpse drawing is a completely awesome activity for kids or adults. Learn it here.